Jay-Shiro Tashiro is a writer, researcher, and teacher. During the past decade, he has focused mostly on writing literary fiction, including novels, screenplays, stage plays, but also writes creative nonfiction and technical research papers. Since 1996-present , Tashiro has been an academic researcher studying misconception development during learning and built simulations to create adaptive-inclusive learning environments for Harcourt Health Sciences and Elsevier Incorporated as well as conducting research with colleagues at Ontario Tech University in Canada, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, and the University of Innsbruck.
As his fiction and creative nonfiction evolved, Tashiro focused on three broad areas: (1) the American internment of people of Japanese ancestry during 1942-1946; (2) the complexity of divisiveness and incivility within various levels of social structures within and among individuals and groups, within cities and states, within regions, and within and between countries; and (3) studying how to write the interiority of fictional characters who are neurodivergent and/or suffer from trauma disorders.
During 2020-2021, he completed a two-year novel writing program within the Stanford University’s Online Studies, finishing and revising a novel duology about the complexity of linked traumas within a Japanese-American family during internment and World War II. Although Tashiro prefers long-form literary fiction, he also has authored short stories, screenplays, stage plays, and creative nonfiction essays.
During 2000-2012, Tashiro wrote 60 short stories about complex patients in three types of healthcare settings. He adapted each story into a screenplay, then directed filming of these screenplays as well as editing the videos to portray 3-4 moments of interactive patient care for each of the 60 patients. The videos were nested within three patient simulation environments he designed and built for training nursing, medical assistants, and First Responder-EMT-Paramedic students.
Tashiro’s research projects have focused on relationships between evidence-based learning and evidence-based practices in education, especially health education. His total extramural funding for research and development grants amounts to over $20.6 million. He published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and helped design and write portions of 170 academic textbooks and study guides (which were based on the 60 fictional stories Tashiro wrote about patients with complex medical and psychological issues). Since 2012 he has written 30 more stories, all short-form literary fictions.
Tashiro completed a Fellowship in Medical Informatics sponsored by the US National Library of Medicine (1996) and an Information Sciences Fellowship at the Innsbruck University (2010). He is still a licensed RN in several states and during 2021 served as a vaccinator at mass vaccination sites in Arizona during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jay-Shiro Tashiro received the BA from Kenyon College (Gambier, OH, USA) in 1973, with majors in Biology and Chemistry. He earned the Ph.D. from Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY, USA) in 1980, with an emphasis in Physiology and Biostatistics. At the age of 48, he gave up the Director position in the Center for Environmental Sciences and Education at Northern Arizona University and went back to school to study nursing, earning the BSN from Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ, USA). Tashiro received the BSN and RN licensure in 1999).